Slow Cooker Hawaiian Shredded Chicken

Slow Cooker Hawaiian Shredded Chicken is the perfect blend of sweet and savory. It’s a recipe that’s great for leftovers and can be served warm or cold.

Flavorful, light and simple.

Happy first day of Spring! You might be wondering why the heck we’re kicking off Spring with a slow cooker recipe. Seems odd, huh? But this Slow Cooker Hawaiian Shredded Chicken recipe is perfect for any season.

My favorite way to dish-up this slightly sweet and savory, tender shredded chicken is wrapped tightly in a crisp Swiss chard leaf with shredded carrots, red cabbage, green onions, cilantro, sliced almonds and avocado. I then use additional coconut aminos for dipping which adds another punch of delicious flavor. Seriously, so good! You could also serve the chicken on a bed of greens, over cauliflower rice, and stuffed in a perfectly ripe avocado half.

That’s right, Slow Cooker recipes can be enjoyed all year long!

If you’ve been following our blog for some time now, you may have gathered that we’re quite fans of slow cooker (and Instant Pot) recipes AND we’ve gathered that you like them too! Our most popular recipes on the blog to this date just so happen to be slow cooker recipes such as our Buffalo Chicken, Chicken Chile Verde, and White Chicken Chili. Slow Cooker recipes can really be enjoyed all year long. In the winter they’re great for making hearty meals like roast & potatoes and soups & stews and in the warmer months they’re perfect for using in place of the oven because they don’t give off as much heat. No one wants to heat the house up on a scorcher of a day.

I like to make this Slow Cooker Hawaiian Shredded Chicken recipe in the warmer months and then serve it in a lettuce or chard wrap with whatever veggies are in-season. Since today is the first day of Spring (wahoo!), I thought this was a perfect recipe to share!

Shred, wrap and eat!

After the chicken has cooked in the slow cooker for about 4-5 hours and is quite tender, you’ll want to remove the chicken, place it on a plate and shred with two forks. Once the chicken is shredded, return to the slow cooker and place on warm or low until ready to serve.

Wrap it up OR serve however you wish.

Now it’s time to assemble. Do your thing! Wrap it in a crisp chard or lettuce leaf, serve it on a salad, serve it over cauliflower rice or stuff it in an avocado half. Whatever sounds good to you.

You can store leftover chicken in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days and enjoy warm or cold – perfect for lunchtime salads. You may also freeze the leftovers which will make for a fast-and-easy, delicious meal down the road. When you’re ready to enjoy, remove from the freezer and allow to thaw overnight in the fridge. In the morning, place the chicken in the slow cooker and cook on low until heated through.

Slow Cooker Hawaiian Shredded Chicken is Whole30 compliant as long as you use unsweetened canned pineapple – be sure to read the ingredients.

Slow Cooker Shredded Hawaiian Chicken

Hawaiian Shredded Chicken is the perfect blend of sweet and savory. It’s flavorful, light, and a simple slow cooker meal. Follow the recipe and serve the chicken in a chard wrap—or feel free to serve it however you wish: on a bed of greens, on top of a sweet potato, or over cauliflower rice. This recipe makes for great leftovers and can be served hot or cold.

Select ‘Poultry’ setting (15 minutes; add 2-3 minutes if breasts are thick) When cooking time is up, manually release pressure and carefully remove the lid. Shred chicken with two forks and serve as desired. Updated: For High Altitude, allow for 5 minutes of natural release before flipping the valve to ‘Venting’ position.

Nutrition

Serving Size:1/6 of recipe

Calories:190

Sugar:7 g

Sodium:400 mg

Fat:5 g

Carbohydrates:10 g

Fiber:1 g

Protein:24 g

Give this Slow Cooker Hawaiian Shredded Chicken a try and comment below what you think and also let us know if you slow cook your way through Spring and Summer?

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About Stacie Hassing

Stacie is a Licensed and Registered Dietitian from rural southern Minnesota where she and her husband reside on 5 acres with their two pups, Walter & Lucy. She’s a creator of simple and wholesome recipes, a lover of nature, a crossfitter, a seasonal runner, and she’s on a mission to inspire as many as she can live a healthier and happier life from the inside out.

Hi Heidi, we do not have a post discussing coconut aminos at this time. My guess is that a quick Dr. google search will help you discover loads of information on coconut aminos 🙂 We like coconut aminos because it’s soy-free, Whole30-friendly, very clean and much much lower in sodium when compared to soy sauce or tamari sauce. We use coconut aminos in several of our recipes. Hope this helps!

We haven’t tested the recipe with mandarin oranges though they seem like they’d be a fine substitute. You’re really just looking for something to add a little sweetness and acidity (which helps tenderize the meat). If you try it with oranges we’d LOVE to hear how it turns out.

I substituted the Mandarin oranges for the pineapple and thought that it still needed a touch of sweetness (after cooking) so I added 2 tablespoons of raw honey. I didn’t have swiss chard so I used a coconut wrap and added spinach and avocado and it was just perfect. I am counting the hours until lunch…

Once again, thank you for creating and sharing such fabulous recipes and for helping me have a little more fun in the kitchen!

Thanks for the feedback! I’m so happy to hear you found a dish you loved that meets your dietary restriction and that you’re eating well and enjoying your time in the kitchen. Guess our job is done here! 😉

You really do need them to add that salty/umami flavor however, if you can find them locally and you tolerate soy, then you could replace them with gluten-free tamari sauce (using about 1/2 of the amount called for in the recipe + a few extra tablespoons of juice from the canned pineapple to get that salty/umami taste).

Sorry for the late reply. I believe I made a suggestion in a previous comment about subbing soy sauce or tamari for the coconut aminos – hopefully you caught that. Otherwise, I find that if you’re using soy or tamari (wheat-free soy sauce) that you’ll want to use roughly HALF of the amount of coconut aminos called for in the recipe to account for the saltiness of the soy or tamari.

So in this recipe, you’d want to use roughly 3 1/2 Tbsp. soy or tamari sauce + a little extra juice from the canned pineapple to make up for the natural sweetness of the coconut aminos.

That’s great! It’s a favorite at our house too. We often use it to make ‘stir-fry bowls’ with cauliflower rice (rice for the kids) then top it with stir-fried veggies, nuts or seeds then a drizzle of our Teriyaki Sauce (which you can find the recipe for here: https://therealfoodrds.com/one-pan-teriyaki-chicken-veggie-bake/)

Stopping by to say this is AMAZING. Tried it during a Whole 30, and the whole family approved. I also shared it on facebook and friends tried and loved it. (We used the InstantPot as a slow cooker…sometime I’ll try to quick pressure cook it though.)

Thanks for taking the time to stop in and share your experience with this recipe. We’re so happy you loved it and thanks for sharing the love with your friends, too! I recently did mine under pressure and it took 15 minutes + natural pressure release.

You can use chicken breasts with great results. We tend to use a mix of breasts and thighs because thighs are tough to overcook and they’re less expensive than breasts here in the U.S. But that said, all breasts works great too. Just keep an eye on them so they don’t overcook since all slow cookers run a little differently (some are hotter than others!) I hope that helps!

This recipe came out delish…Chicken was very tender…I used 4 large chicken breasts and doubled all of the other ingredients…. with the exception of coconut aminos….I only used 1/2 cup…. I also put jalapeno pepper in there for an extra kick… and it came out absolutely wonderful. Great recipe!

If you don’t need them to be Whole30-compliant you can use Tamari sauce or Bragg’s Liquid Aminos (wheat-free versions of soy sauce). If soy isn’t an issue, then I’d suggest using a low-sodium soy sauce if that’s what you have on hand or have access to at your local market.

You can do it either way – use the chard leaves raw (which soften a bit when you add the hot chicken) or lightly steam and cool them. As long as you cut the center ‘rib’ from the leaf it will fold up nicely – unless it’s really thick – then I allow the meat to sit on the leaf for a minute then roll them up.

I’ve not tried this recipe without the pineapple so I can’t confidently give you a substitution for it. Perhaps our Instant Pot Shredded Chicken prepared with chicken broth mixed with a little coconut aminos would be a better fit (you could even make it in the slow cooker – just cook on low heat for 5-6 hours).

Hi there! We haven’t actually weighed the ingredients/servings out in ounces so I would suggest simply dividing the recipe into 6 equal servings. Sorry if that’s not the answer you were looking for. I hope you enjoy the recipe! 🙂

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The Real Food Dietitians is the passion-driven product of Registered Dietitian Nutritionists Stacie Hassing and Jessica Beacom. They’ve combined their love of nutrition, health and real food with the concepts of ease and convenience to bring you recipes that are big on flavor but short on ingredients.